UMYU Scientifica (USci) – Author Guidelines and Peer Review Process

Authors are invited to submit original manuscripts to UMYU Scientifica (USci). All submissions undergo an initial editorial assessment to determine alignment with the journal’s aims, scope, and quality standards. Manuscripts considered suitable are then sent for double-blind peer review before a final decision on acceptance or rejection is made.

Before Submission

Authors are responsible for ensuring the following prior to submission:

  • Permissions: Obtain written permission for any copyrighted material included in the manuscript (e.g., photographs, figures, datasets, documents).
  • Authorship Consent: All listed authors must consent to authorship and approve the final version submitted.
  • Ethics Approval: Where applicable, research involving human or animal subjects must have approval from a recognized ethics committee in accordance with national or institutional regulations.
  • Manuscript Quality: The manuscript must meet minimum scientific and presentation standards. Authors should ensure that:

ü  The study design is clearly articulated.

ü  The research question and argument are coherent and well developed.

ü  The title is concise, and the abstract accurately summarizes the study.

ü  The manuscript adheres to journal formatting and referencing guidelines.

Submissions that do not meet these basic standards may be desk rejected without external review.

Once authors are confident that their manuscript meets the required standard, they should prepare their submission according to Usci templates below:

1.      Title Page: Download the template at: https://bit.ly/Usci-title-page

2.      Manuscript Body without author details. Download the template at: https://bit.ly/Usci-manuscript-body

SUBMISSION AND EDITORIAL PROCESS

To submit a manuscript, Authors are required to log in (pre-existing users) or register (for new users) their account on the journal website. Using the journal online submission platform, three (3) separate attachments are required to be uploaded at the onset of the submissions:

1) Attachment 1: Title page containing the Manuscript title, authors' names, affiliations and other information (ORCID IDs and the corresponding authors' Email).

(2) Attachment 2: Main manuscript (without the Authors' names and their affiliations/information).

(3) Attachment 3: scanned copy of evidence of payment (of the manuscript processing fee of 5,000 naira). Manuscripts not accompanied by processing fees will not be processed.

ARTICLE PROCESSING FEES

USci is an Open-Access journal and charges the following fees:

·        Manuscript Processing Fee: ₦5,000 (USD 5 for international authors), payable on submission.

·        Publication Fee: ₦15,000 (USD 20 for international authors), payable upon acceptance.

Payments must be made only to:

Bank: United Bank for Africa

Acc. No.: 2269882614

Acc. Name: UMYU Scientifica

Note that there are no any other charges apart from these Peer-review and Article Publication Charges.

 Refund policy

The Peer-review Submission Charges (PSC) is due on submission of the manuscript while the Article Publication Charges (APC) is due once the submitted manuscript is accepted for publication. These payments are non-refundable.

DOUBLE-BLIND PEER REVIEW PROCESS

The UMYU Scientifica (Usci) employs a double-blind peer review system to ensure fairness, transparency, and high academic standards in the evaluation of all submitted manuscripts. In this system, both reviewers and authors remain anonymous throughout the review process.

Review Workflow

1.      Initial Editorial Screening

Upon submission, every manuscript is screened by the Editorial Office to confirm its compliance with journal scope, formatting requirements, ethical standards, and originality (including plagiarism checks).

 

2.      Assignment to Reviewers

Manuscripts that pass initial screening are assigned to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers with relevant subject expertise. Reviewers are selected based on their academic qualifications, research experience, and absence of conflicts of interest.

3.      Double-Blind Evaluation

Reviewers evaluate manuscripts based on:

§  originality and scientific relevance

§  clarity of research objectives

§  soundness of methodology and data analysis

§  validity of results and conclusions

§  quality of presentation, referencing, and ethical compliance

Reviewers provide constructive comments and a clear recommendation (accept, revise, or reject).

4.      Editorial Decision

The Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor makes the final decision based on reviewers’ reports, journal standards, and the manuscript’s scholarly contribution. Authors are notified promptly of decisions and provided with anonymized reviewer comments.

5.      Revision Process

Authors of manuscripts requiring revision must address reviewers’ comments point-by-point and submit a revised version within the stipulated timeframe. Revised manuscripts may undergo further review.

6.      Final Acceptance and Production

Once accepted, the manuscript proceeds to copy-editing, typesetting, and proofing stages before publication online and in print.

Reviewer Responsibilities

  • Maintain strict confidentiality regarding all submitted manuscripts.
  • Provide objective, unbiased, and timely evaluations.
  • Declare any potential conflicts of interest immediately.
  • Refrain from using information in reviewed manuscripts for personal or academic advantage.

 

 

Editorial Integrity and Fairness

USci adheres to the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) standards and DOAJ’s Best Practice Guidelines. All manuscripts are evaluated solely on scientific merit, without discrimination based on authors’ nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, or personal characteristics. No submission or publication decision is influenced by commercial or institutional interests.

Transparency

The journal publicly discloses its peer-review process and ensures that:

  • the review model (double-blind) is clearly stated,
  • the number of reviewers involved is defined,
  • editorial decisions are based on reviewers’ reports and journal policies,
  • authors are notified of all decisions along with constructive feedback.

 ETHICS OF PUBLISHING IN Usci

Plagiarism

Authors should note that plagiarism and breach in research ethics are not tolerated by this Journal. Hence, all manuscripts submitted to USci are subjected to plagiarism checks before accepting for publication. Authors must not submit papers that are under review/consideration in other journals. Authors must fully acknowledge all sources of their information, such as methodology, figures etc. Authors are responsible and liable to the content of their manuscripts.

Authorship
Authorship is restricted to persons who contributed to the paper (eg. design and/or analysis and interpretation of the data/or drafting of the paper). All authors must review and approve the contents of the final version of the manuscript before submitting it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors must declare a conflict of interest (if any) while submitting the final version of the manuscript for publication.

Acknowledgement
Authors are required to state contributions that do not justify authorship but need to be acknowledged/disclosed; source of funding, technical or material support, etc.

Copyright Policy

By submitting a manuscript for publication in UMYU Scientifica, authors have agreed on the copyright policy of USci which operates based on open access copyright policy (CCBY-NC 4.0 license) under which any person can copy, reuse or redistribute the published articles for any non-commercial purpose(s) provided that the author and the source of the article are properly cited.

Manuscript Withdrawal Policy of UMYU Scientifica (Usci)

UMYU Scientifica (Usci), reserves the right to retract any published article when there is suspected plagiarism or any scientific misconduct. The author can request for the withdrawal of manuscripts before or after publishing via a formal written request addressed to the Editor-in-Chief of Usci with full justifications. Approvals for the withdrawal of manuscripts depend on the decision of the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial board of Usci. There will be no refunds of article processing and /or Publication charges paid to Usci if the processed/published manuscript is withdrawn. 

SUMMARY OF USci EDITORIAL PROCESS

  • Call for papers
  • Article submission via the journal’s Website submission portal or as email to the journal’s email address.
  • Processing/screening of received manuscripts at the editorial level.
  • Manuscripts that meet the journal standard are sent for peer review, otherwise, rejected manuscripts at the editorial level are sent back to the authors.
  • The editorial board awaits the decision of the panel of reviewers
  • Acceptance letter is communicated to corresponding authors for articles that were accepted after peer review.
  • Authors are given at most two weeks to submit back corrected copies.
  • Corrections made by the authors are ascertained (vetted).
  • Papers are sent to the press for publication.
  • Galley proofs are sent to the corresponding authors. 
  • Final published copies are released online and in hard copies.